This pilot clinical trial studies busulfan, melphalan, and stem cell transplant after chemotherapy in treating patients with newly diagnosed neuroblastoma that is likely to come back or spread. Giving chemotherapy to the entire body before a stem cell transplant stops the growth of tumor cells by stopping them from dividing or killing them. After treatment, stem cells are collected from the patient's blood and stored. More chemotherapy or radiation therapy is given to prepare the bone marrow for the stem cell transplant. The stem cells are then returned to the patient to replace the blood-forming cells that were destroyed by the chemotherapy.

The Tolerability of BuMel Regimen [ Time Frame: Up to 28 days post-consolidation therapy, up to 1 year ]

Number of patients who experience one or more unacceptable toxicities (severe sinusoidal obstruction syndrome [SOS] or Grade 4-5 pulmonary toxicity per Common Toxicity Criteria [CTC] v.4.0) during the Consolidation phase of therapy.

Other Outcome Measures:

Incidence of Non-hematologic Organ Toxicity (Grade 3 and Higher) and All Cause Mortality Graded According to CTC v4.0 [ Time Frame: Up to 180 days ]

Assessed by a descriptive analysis of the incidence of grade 3-5 non-hematologic toxicities (CTC v4.0) and all-cause mortality during consolidation therapy. In addition, a descriptive analysis of "late" onset grade 4-5 pulmonary and hepatic complications that occur within 180 days of the start of consolidation therapy will be examined, regardless if the patient has proceeded to other therapy (including chimeric antibody) during that 180 day period.

Response Rate Determined Using the International Response Criteria [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]

EFS [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]

Overall Survival [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]

First Dose Area Under the Curve (AUC) and Average Daily AUC for Busulfan [ Time Frame: Within 28 days following consolidation ]

Relationship with occurrence of non-hematologic toxicities assessed by a descriptive analysis. Association between busulfan exposure levels as measured by the area under the curve (AUC) and event-free survival and overall survival will be examined using Cox proportional hazards models.

Percentage of Centrally Reviewed Post-course 4 MIBG Scans Reporting a Curie Score Considered to Have Been Determined in "Real Time" [ Time Frame: Up to week 12 (course 4 of induction therapy) ]

Percentage of MIBG Scans Receiving Institutionally and Centrally Reviewed and Automated Advanced Assisted Scoring Platform Curie Scores Within 1 Unit of Each Other [ Time Frame: Up to week 12 (course 4 of induction therapy) ]

Cohen's kappa will be calculated to evaluate the concordance in Curie scores between each of the scoring methods at each time point. Up to 160 MIBG scans are expected at diagnosis and up to 144 MIBG scans from the 90% of patients estimated to be MIBG avid are projected post-course 4 of induction therapy, for a total of up to 304 MIBG scans.

Proportion of High-risk Neuroblastoma Patients for Whom ALK Status Can be Obtained [ Time Frame: Within 6 weeks of diagnosis ]

Proportion of High-risk Neuroblastoma Patients With MYCN Non-amplified Tumors for Whom Molecular Profiling Results Can be Obtained [ Time Frame: Within 8 weeks of diagnosis ]

Melphalan Pharmacokinetics and the Combination of Busulfan and Melphalan AUC (Optional) [ Time Frame: Within 28 days post-consolidation ]

A descriptive analysis of the relationship between melphalan pharmacokinetics and the combination of busulfan and melphalan AUC with the occurrence of non-hematologic toxicities within 28 days following completion of consolidation will be assessed. In addition, the association between melphalan exposure levels as measured by the AUC and event-free survival and overall survival will be examined using Cox proportional hazards models.

COURSES 3 AND 5: Patients receive cisplatin IV over 1 hour on days 1-4 and etoposide IV over 1-2 hours on days 1-3. Treatment repeats every 3 weeks for 2 courses.

COURSE 4: Patients receive cyclophosphamide IV over 1-6 hours on days 1-2, vincristine sulfate IV over 1 minute on days 1-3, and doxorubicin hydrochloride IV over 24 hours on days 1-3. Treatment repeats every 3 weeks for 1 course.

Treatment continues in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

CONSOLIDATION THERAPY: Beginning 4-8 weeks following the 5th course of induction therapy, patients receive busulfan IV over 3 hours on days -6 to -3 and melphalan IV on day -1. Patients undergo ASCT on day 0.

Patients must have a diagnosis of neuroblastoma (International Classification of Diseases for Oncology [ICD-O] morphology 9500/3) or ganglioneuroblastoma (nodular or intermixed) verified by histology or demonstration of clumps of tumor cells in bone marrow with elevated urinary catecholamine metabolites; patients with the following disease stages at diagnosis are eligible, if they meet the other specified criteria

Patients with newly diagnosed neuroblastoma with International Neuroblastoma Staging System (INSS) stage 4 are eligible with the following:

Age 12-18 months (365-547 days) with any of the following 3 unfavorable biologic features (MYCN amplification, unfavorable pathology and/or deoxyribonucleic acid [DNA] index = 1) or any biologic feature that is indeterminate/unsatisfactory/unknown

Patients with newly diagnosed neuroblastoma with INSS stage 3 are eligible with the following:

MYCN amplification (> 4-fold increase in MYCN signals as compared to reference signals), regardless of age or additional biologic features or

Patients with newly diagnosed neuroblastoma with INSS stage 2A/2B with MYCN amplification (> 4-fold increase in MYCN signals as compared to reference signals), regardless of age or additional biologic features

Patients >= 365 days initially diagnosed with neuroblastoma INSS stage 1, 2, 4S who progressed to a stage 4 without interval chemotherapy; these patients must have been enrolled on ANBL00B1; study enrollment on ANBL12P1 must occur within 4 weeks of progression to stage 4 for INSS stage 1, 2, 4S

Patients must not have had prior systemic therapy except for localized emergency radiation to sites of life-threatening or function-threatening disease and/or no more than 1 cycle of chemotherapy per a low or intermediate risk neuroblastoma regimen (as per P9641, A3961, ANBL0531, or similar) prior to determination of MYCN amplification status and histology

No known contraindication to peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) collection; examples of contraindications might be a weight or size less than that determined to be feasible at the collecting institution, or a physical condition that would limit the ability of the child to undergo apheresis catheter placement (if necessary) and/or the apheresis procedure

All patients and/or their parents or legal guardians must sign a written informed consent

All institutional, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and National Cancer Institute (NCI) requirements for human studies must be met

Exclusion Criteria:

Patients that are 12-18 months of age with INSS stage 4 and all 3 favorable biologic features (ie, nonamplified MYCN, favorable pathology, and DNA index > 1) are not eligible

Female patients who are pregnant are ineligible

Lactating females are not eligible unless they have agreed not to breastfeed their infants

Female patients of childbearing potential are not eligible unless a negative pregnancy test result has been obtained

Sexually active patients of reproductive potential are not eligible unless they have agreed to use an effective contraceptive method for the duration of their study participation

Contacts and Locations

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Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01798004